On Monday and Tuesday, November 13 -14, CAIR-Columbus Public Affairs Coordinator Usjid Hameed and Interim Youth Director for NICC Amina Barhumi spoke about Islam at Columbus State Community College to students preparing to become American Sign Language interpreters.
During the presentation, Hameed discussed the diversity of beliefs in Islam, dispelled myths about Muslims, examined the many similarities between Islam and other Abrahamic faiths, and fielded questions from the class.
Omar Jaafar is now a United States citizen after waiting over three years for his citizenship application to be adjudicated.
Jaafar, a native citizen of Iraq, initially applied for citizenship in 2014. United States law provides that an applicant must receive a decision on a citizenship application within 120 days of the interview, however, until CAIR-Columbus attorneys filed a lawsuit for Mr. Jaafar, USCIS failed to even schedule his interview. Once the lawsuit challenging the unreasonable delay was filed, Mr. Jaafar was interviewed and approved within two months, and was officially sworn in a as citizen last week.
His attorneys suspect his case was delayed due to a little-known policy called CARRP. CARRP stands for the Controlled Application Review and Resolution Program. It’s a covert program that the U.S. government began in 2008, in which the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in particular U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), began giving strict extra scrutiny to immigrants and non-citizens from Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, and South Asian communities when they apply for U.S. citizenship, lawful permanent residency (a green card), and asylum.
(COLUMBUS, OHIO, 11/2/17) — On Tuesday, October 31, CAIR-Ohio hosted its “Muslim Day at the Capitol” event at the Ohio Statehouse.
The event focused on empowering Ohio’s American Muslim community and advocating for legislation that would positively impact all Ohioans.
Participants attended 28 meetings with different members’ offices to discuss Senate Bill 172, The Hunger Free Students’ Bill of Rights Act, which aims to end the practice known as “lunch shaming” and for House Bill 360, the Ohio Anti-Bullying and Hazing Act, which aims to take a firm but rehabilitation-focused approach to bullying.
GOOD NEWS ALERT: WE WON!
We filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court of Maryland on behalf six individuals affected by Muslim Ban 3.0, including two Columbus plaintiffs of Syrian origin, to stop the implementation of President Trump’s Muslim Ban 3.0. Last night’s ruling from the District Court in Maryland means that our Plaintiffs and citizens of these six Muslim majority nations can be reunited with their families.
Last night’s Maryland decision joins Hawaii in blocking the new Muslim Ban from going into effect against citizens of six Muslim majority nations. This is the third version of President Trump’s Muslim Ban since January 2017 and was supposed to go into effect on October 18, 2017 at 12:01 a.m. EST.
The Columbus Chapter of CAIR, the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, is welcoming a decision today by a federal judge in Hawaii to block the Trump administration from implementing “Muslim Ban 3.0,” the latest version of the president’s controversial travel ban.
Judge Derrick K. Watson’s decision means that the administration cannot restrict the entry of travelers from six of the eight countries targeted by the ban, which was to go into effect tomorrow.
SEE: Federal Judge Blocks Trump’s Third Travel Ban
Read the full Hawaii Opinion HERE
With elections coming up on November 7, our CAIR-Columbus team got in touch with the candidates to get responses to questions of importance to the Muslim community. Here are their responses and other information about the election. Click here for a full PDF version.
Please remember to vote!
On Wednesday, October 11th, CAIR-Columbus participated in the Second Annual “Courthouse to the Community” Event, organized by Columbus City Councilmember Michael Stinziano and hosted by the Columbus Urban League. The event sought to connect individuals in the community with local legal service organizations.
giving store listing will qualify us to receive extra funds from the Columbus Foundation. Everyone who gives will have their donations amplified by the Foundation and they will also cover all credit card fees so that 100% of donations go to participating non-profits.
CAIR-COLUMBUS CO-COUNSELING LATEST LITIGATION AGAINST THE TRAVEL BAN
CAIR and CAIR-Columbus, along with the Brennan Center for Justice in New York and the law firm of Profeta & Eisenstein, announced the filing of a federal lawsuit on behalf of six individuals challenging the lawfulness of President Trump’s most recent attempt to implement a “Muslim ban.”
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, and two of the plaintiffs are from Columbus, including the lead plaintiff in the case.
On Sunday, October 1, CAIR-Columbus Public Affairs Coordinator, Usjid Hameed, and Operations Coordinator, Monuza Ashraf, spoke at Boulevard Presbyterian Church in Grandview to a study group focused on learning more about Muslims and the Islamic faith.
During the event, Hameed and Ashraf discussed the overlaps between Christianity and Islam, the diversity among Muslims both within Central Ohio and around the globe, as well as how individuals can safely intervene when witness to someone verbally attacking another person who appears to be Muslim.
On Sunday, October 1, CAIR-Columbus Public Affairs Coordinator, Usjid Hameed, was one of five panelists to speak at For Ohio’s Future’s “Resist. Mobilize. Win.” event. Hameed and panelists from other local organizations discussed race, activism, and the new challenges faced by their communities since the Trump Administration took office.
Hameed spoke about the immigration barriers enacted by the new administration which disproportionately impact Muslims, and touched on the steep rise in anti-Muslim bias incidents since the 2016 election season began. In addition, he spoke about the importance of voting and staying informed to combat these discriminatory policies.
Civil Rights Organizations Submit Amicus Brief to Stop Ohio’s Aggressive Voter Purge Practice
Today, CAIR-Ohio joined Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAJC), Latino Justice, PRLDEF, and the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) Educational Fund, along with 18 other organizations, in an amicus brief1 (also known as a friend of the court document) in support of respondent A. Philip Randolph Institute for the U.S. Supreme Court case, Husted v. A. Philip Randolph Institute, et al. The case could prove to be pivotal in the civil rights fight against voter suppression tactics.
The brief contends that Ohio’s aggressive practice of purging voter rolls – a list of individuals who have not voted in a two-year period – is harmful to communities of color, especially those with limited English proficiency in the Asian American, Pacific Islander, and Latinx communities.
The Columbus chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Columbus) today condemned President Trump’s latest travel ban, and encouraged any Ohio Muslims with family members impacted by the ban to contact CAIR-Columbus for assistance.
“The President’s latest travel ban has little to do with national security and everything to do with anti-immigrant bigotry. President Trump, Stephen Miller, and others within the Administration pine for an America that is racially, religiously and culturally monolithic,” said attorney Jennifer Nimer, Executive Director of CAIR-Columbus.
Nimer added, “That’s why President Trump keeps trying to curtail legal immigration, increase deportations, and ban as many Muslims as he can get away with banning, including–once again–foreign relatives of many American Muslims. The travel ban was irrational the first two times President Trump tried to implement it, and it remains so today.”
A recent survey conducted by the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (IPSU) found that 42% of Muslim students in grades K-12 have reported bullying because of their faith. Even more alarming was the finding that one in four bullying incidents of Muslim students involved a teacher or school official.
In light of these disturbing statistics, CAIR-Columbus has initiated an anti-bullying campaign which includes teacher and administrator education as a main component. Our new Educator’s Guide to Islamic Religious Practices is a comprehensive guide that will assist teachers, principals, administrators and other educators in formulating and implementing policies and programs that will help to create a culturally sensitive and supportive academic environment for our Muslim students.
(WASHINGTON, D.C., 9/20/17) — The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, is calling on all Americans to urge their congressional representatives to co-sponsor and support the Disarm Hate Act (H.R. 2841/S.1324). The act is sponsored by Congressman David Cicilline (D-RI) and Senator Robert Casey (D-PA).
Introduced in June — one week before the Congressional baseball practice shooting and two months before the deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va. — the act would ban gun sales to people who have been convicted of a hate crime or a misdemeanor committed out of hatred of a person’s race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability from attaining a firearm.